Community Scholarly Analysis

In 2007 South LA Health Projects created the Immunize LA Families Coalition, which worked to increase immunization rates across the lifespan among African Americans and Latinos in South Los Angeles.1 Immunize LA Families was a sister program of another successful program, Immunize LA Kids, which ran from 1999-2007.2 Immunize LA Families worked with community centers, churches, community organizations, and residents to increase social acceptance of immunizations and access to vaccinations.1 The Immunize LA Families Coalition was composed of representatives from public and private agencies, local clinics, faith-based organization, and the community.1

* Inability to access vaccine as vaccination programs have not been implemented in some countries.

I am passionate about this issues. I have worked as an immunization nurse for several years in the state of Maryland. In Maryland there are strict requirements for vaccinating children for school entry. I worked for Prince George’s County and Baltimore County Health Department. In the state of Maryland many children each year are out compliance and therefore are not allowed to attend school until the requirements are satisfied.

In the United States we are very fortunate. For the most part we do not live in fear of disease outbreaks from day to day. Our government along with the Centers for Disease Control and Public Health Departments have managed to have adults and children vaccinated and set up recommendations regarding those vaccinations. Despite all that is done our country allows freedoms. One of these freedoms is to not vaccinate your child from communicable diseases due to personal beliefs. With the worlds populations becoming more mobile, that sets your child up for dangerous encounters; because some countries are not as strict on laws regarding vaccinations and some

Failure to immunize people impacts negatively on a country 's growth as it is a health burden to the public. This is because most people are left with chronic disease conditions that are difficult to manage; as such infections require complex and costly care. It is imperative to note that there are many barriers to enhancing the use of adult vaccination among people. The low rates of vaccination indicate the existence of limited public and provider knowledge on the issue of immunization. Other issues include existence of different economic constraints and infrastructure to support the program. Adult immunization is undervalued by the public and healthcare providers as very little information is known about its benefit.

Although the negative claims behind anti-immunization stances are deceptive and discredited, some parents find it difficult to accept that vaccines are necessary and safe. Many of these reasons are due to personal or religious beliefs that have persuaded parents to bypass immunizations for their children. Consequently, health officials are seeing disquieting rises of diseases that are easily preventable. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has reported hundreds of measles cases in the United States in 2011, the largest number in 15 years (Ben-Joseph, Elana). Essentially, almost all of these cases were in individuals who had not received a vaccine shot. Also found in the article was that a great amount of the quarrel over the shots comes from a 1998 study that tried to connect autism to a type of vaccine that defends against measles. However, there has been no scientific evidence that a vaccine or a combination of any of the shots induces autism. Undoubtedly, the doctor that wrote the article, calling vaccines a “deliberate fraud” ,lost his license for not submitting any evidence of his claim and causing people to neglect shots for that year. Sadly, due to that article, 1 in 4 parents still believe that vaccines are

If we eliminate these barriers and mandate vaccination, it will help in increasing rate of vaccination (Suillivan, 2010).

Some of my friends did not have the same privileges, which might be due to their parents not knowing about the certain program, or having the necessary document to qualify for it. In my high school, we had a health clinic that made sure all the kids’ immunization records was up to date. On the other side of Chicago where the community income was much lower, there was no health clinic at the school so whenever a child get ill, the parents of that child would have to take off work and seek medical treatment.

In December of 2014, an outbreak of measles, which started in Disneyland, resulted in nearly two hundred people being sickened across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The highly contagious respiratory disease spread for three months. Among those who contracted the illness, one developed severe pneumonia and multiple organ injury, while another suffered acute respiratory distress syndrome. So, why did an illness, which was purportedly eliminated sixteen years ago, experience a surge so dramatic that it caused more cases in 2014 than in the five preceding years combined? According to the CDC, the outbreak could be boiled down to one simple reason: “The majority of people were unvaccinated.” So while the California measles outbreak is a thing of the past, the fight to increase compliance with vaccinations continues. Although the benefits and safety of vaccinations are undisputed by the medical and scientific community, there are still sizeable groups of “anti-vaxxers” who refuse to vaccinate their children. These groups spread misconceptions, sometimes unknowingly, and become even more influential when coupled with the power of the internet and social media. Therefore, in order to increase compliance with routine vaccinations, the misconceptions of parents should be targeted, and legislation should be changed in order to prevent leniency and loopholes regarding vaccine exemptions.

While it is convenient for someone with insurance to afford for their child to receive all of their vaccinations, some caretakers must decide between paying for vaccinations or buying other items. In this scenario, it is not beneficial to follow a schedule because it is more important to purchase necessities such as food. A vaccination schedule is not beneficial to a child if an adverse reaction occurs, such as an allergic reaction. The gamble with a child receiving multiple vaccinations at once is that if there is an allergic reaction, it can be difficult to tell what the child had a reaction to. Some caregivers prefer to avoid the scenario above by not giving multiple vaccinations at once. With the compression of the vaccination schedule, a child receiving one vaccine at a time may not meet school criteria for enrollment. The caregiver’s actions are to protect the child’s health, but in turn they are in a scenario where they must compromise. The caregiver must choose what they view as more important, their child’s health or

Often debated, with strong convictions on each side, timely immunizations for children do more good then harm. Over the last few years, a phenomenon has come to our door steps. It used to be that all parents would immunize their children, without fail, because doctors told them to. In the past, the only non-immunized children were the children with health deficiencies. These children depended on the “herd” mentality. However, times are changing and parents are choosing to not immunize their children mainly based on these reasons: the possibility of them getting autism, parental lack of education about immunizations and lastly they believe that the illnesses that children are being immunized against are gone and immunizations are no longer needed.

This paper examines the controversy surrounding the public health issue of vaccinations in children. Following a careful review of the literature surrounding this issue, the possible reasons for and implications of having a large percentage of the population who remains unvaccinated are discussed. Possible interventions and purposed interventions for resolution of this problem are discussed and conclusions are drawn based on what it learned from the literature.

Thesis Statement: Recently, the United States has seen a resurgence of many different diseases that we haven 't seen in decades. Much of this problem is caused by failure to get vaccinations, and a key step to solving the issue is education.

Now, many once-forgotten diseases are reappearing. TIME Magazine reported that “In 2014, the U.S. experienced a major outbreak of measles that totaled 383 cases and was primarily spreading among an unvaccinated Amish community in Ohio.” (Measles Outbreak) The number of cases of these diseases is going up when it can be easily prevented. Worldwide, “Measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available.” (World Health

In 1963 the Noble Peace Prize winning virologist John F. Enders finally licensed his vaccine for measles. Prior to this vaccine the United States alone reported 4 million cases of the measles each year. With more scientific discoveries the measles vaccine today has evolved to include immunity against rubella and mumps along with protecting millions against illness each year. However, vaccination is a word surrounded by controversy in today’s parenting world and the Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccine (MMR) can be distinguished as possibly the most controversial vaccine of our time. Controversial because of the fear that many have that it causes autism along with other hazards. This fear has clouded